


The Shell

by Palefire73



Series: Loki Origins [18]
Category: Frigga - Fandom, Loki - Fandom, Thor - Fandom, odin - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Loki copes with being alone, Odin is a great father, Yes I said Odin is a great father!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 09:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6188575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palefire73/pseuds/Palefire73
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, I was wondering how a toddler would cope with the first night of being without his older brother, knowing it was to last a whole month. And I decided to introduce a time when Odin was, indeed, a great Father!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shell

Loki swirled the bubbles around in the bath, watching the myriad of perfumed sparkling spheres bobbing on the surface of the warm water. There was a particularly large mound of them to his side and he grinned as he playfully scooped up a soapy handful ready to throw at his brother, but then he lowered his hand. Thor was not here of course; he would be with his friends up at the training camp right now, probably being allowed to stay up late and doing exciting things.

 

The bottom lip of the young Prince began to protrude and his nostrils flared as he began to cry quietly, and he swished angrily at the merry bubbles trying to pop them. They were no fun when there was no-one to share them with! After a few minutes, he realised his efforts were futile; all he was doing was making more of them. He sighed and rinsed his face, then looked on the side of the bath tub to where a few toys and trinkets were kept. Taking hold of a pretty shell, he held it up to his ear to listen and soon he was smiling again as he heard the roar of the waters of Asgard within it. He had often wondered how the sound got into such a small thing, but it was there none-the-less and it had been Odin who had told the boys just why they could hear it.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It had been one of the few occasions when the busy All-Father had been able to find time to come to see his sons for supper. He was always in great demand as the Ruler of Asgard, but it was a special day for the celebration of the relationship of Fathers with their children, and he had insisted his evening be kept free.  He had arrived at the nursery with an entourage of servants who brought in and set out a sumptuous meal for Odin and his sons, and the men of the Royal family sat down to eat while Frigga and Fulla went out for the evening to the Asgardian Ballet, something which the Queen had always enjoyed. As part of the special meal, the table had been decorated and the plates containing a few varieties of fish dishes had been surrounded with ornamental shells. Once the meal had been finished, the servants had come to take everything away, but the boys had shown an interest in the strangely shaped shells and had asked to keep a few.

 

As Odin settled down in the soft play area with Loki in his lap playing with one of the shells and Thor sitting on a large cushion opposite him, he had asked:

 

“Do you know the secret of our shells?”

 

Both boys had shaken their heads – a secret? What could it be? Loki – who was only around two and a half years old at the time – became quite excited and giggled.

“You do not know of the wonder to be found within them?” Asked Odin in an amazed tone of voice, “Well, then. I must tell you!”

 

Thor had nodded eagerly. He loved to hear his father’s stories – they were often full of fantastic ideas and thrilling to listen to.

“Yes father! We would hear of it.” He turned the shell he held over in his hands, as if trying to divine the secret within it and settled on his cushion to hear his Father’s tale. Loki leaned against Odin’s chest and nestled his young face into the cascade of golden curls that constituted his beard, and as he felt the comforting rumble of the All-Father’s voice in his chest, he played with his shell too.

 

“Well I shall tell you this as I first heard it as a child – from my father, Bor. He was the personification of the land we walk upon and Bestla – my mother – was that of the ocean which surrounds it. From their union I was created as the All Father, my brother Vili as the God of Light and my other brother, Vé, as the God of Fire. We three raised a new age from the old by ending the rule of the primeval giants, and fashioned all that you see from the body of the last of them, Ymir. He was the ancestor of all the Jótnar…” At this point, Odin had paused and stroked Loki’s brown-haired head thoughtfully. One such giant was now cradled in his arms listening to his tale, the idea of which he would have scathingly dismissed only a couple of years ago. As the toddler played with his colourful shell, Odin carried on.

 

“From Ymir’s remains we brought into existence all you see in the Nine; the earth, the oceans, the trees…. and eventually Man arrived on Midgard, to whom I bequeathed soul and life, Vili their wit and sense of touch and Vé their physical appearance, speech, hearing and sight. It was an optimistic time and filled with wonder as all the newness of the great tree and her realms brought forth riches such as these.

 

“I wandered far and wide, yet I always loved to return to see the waters of Asgard; her rivers, her lakes and her oceans. One day whilst walking along the shore, I discovered the most exquisitely beautiful shell, with a long toothed comb winding about its spiral and the part of its inside I could see was pure iridescent nacre. It was nature’s beauty at its finest and I raised it to look more closely. It was then that I heard it…”

 

The King paused and the two boys turned to look at him expectantly.

 

“… a sound. Haunting, melodic and then dramatic by turn… but all the time I knew it was the waters I could hear. I pocketed the shell and returned home. After supper that night, I produced the shell and mentioned what I had experienced. This is what my father told me…

 

“A shell is the earth’s gift to the ocean. A tiny sea creature is born, it takes sustenance and thence grows the shell from the building blocks provided by the earth which are suspended in the waters of the sea. It is a perfect marriage of the two – hence the beauty of the designs. The earth provides the materials and the animal shapes them according to the environment provided for it by the sea. They all three work in harmony.

 

“And when the animal no longer needs the shell, the sea re-gifts it to the earth; it is conveyed to the shore, where the elements weather it back down to its constituent parts. Yet – every now and again, a shell is plucked from its destiny. Then – and only then – can its true nature be discovered. For it will always hold the song of the sea – the force which shaped it. As she caressed it into the form it took from the building blocks provided by the earth, she sang to the animal which lived inside.”

 

Odin stroked the shell Loki was holding and smiled. “At that point, my father looked over to my mother and there was nothing but love in his eyes. And that is what you hear when you listen to the song of your shell my sons; it is the song the sea has gifted to the earth, possibly the sweetest song of love you will ever hear.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Lowering the shell again, Loki turned it over in his small hands to look at the shiny interior. _Could anyone send a message of love through a shell?_   His young mind wondered.

 

At that moment, his mother arrived. She had popped into the bedroom next door to fetch Loki’s bathrobe and as she returned she saw the little Prince looking thoughtfully at one of the shells that decorated the bathroom. She could tell from his reddened eyes that he must have been crying and her heart went out to him. This was the first night he had been truly away from Thor – aside from the odd sleep-over – and he had been very quiet both during supper and when she had helped him into his bath.

 

“Do you like it, Loki?” She asked brightly, kneeling beside the tub and nodding at his shell.

“Yes.” Replied Loki, “It makes music.”

 

Frigga smiled and lifted him out of the warm bubbly water, noticing that tonight none of it had ended up splashed all over the floor in a water fight. She quickly towelled him all over, tickling him and making him giggle, and then bundled him into his robe, smiling with amusement at how his damp hair stuck out in all directions. Taking him through to the bedroom, they went through the usual routine of getting into pyjamas and arranging pillows and soft toys – Loki liked three pillows with half his toys on either side. He settled back and she kissed his head, drawing up his covers.

 

“Goodnight, my son.”

“Goodnight, Móðir.”

 

As she stood in the doorway, watching Loki nestle deeper into his bed to go to sleep, Frigga spotted the shell in his hand and saw as he brought it to his ear to listen. She was just about to go to take it from him – it would not do to have something hard in bed – when he moved it and held it close to his mouth. What he said next made up her mind for her; he could keep it with him:

 

Into the opening of the shell, and hoping somehow that Thor would be able to hear him from one of the shells that the young Prince assumed would be next to his bath in the training camp, Loki whispered:

 

“Goodnight Thor.” and settled down to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


End file.
